Poor management on the Hessinger building

June 30, 2011

I know this is a dead issue, but since it was my listing, and I had many people inside the building who were not in agreement with its destruction, I just wanted to make a short comment.

Maybe 10 years ago, there was a county program when the leadership was under Jonathan Drapkin. This program was run by Jerry Skoda and it was involved with taking down old barns in the area. The county paid the barn owner a few hundred dollars to take the barn down and clean up the property. The barn beams, the old floor boards and the weathered barn-board siding were then sold to builders in Connecticut. In this way, there was a profit from these products, which are very desired by those who want to build with authentic materials. Even old wavy glass in the old windows, the fireplace mantle and authentic doors could have been saved.

When I saw the picture on the front of your issue of The River Reporter, I was rather amazed that the building was reduced to a pile of rubble and thus created an additional tax burden for the taxpayers.

The destruction of this old historic building seems like a poor decision, especially in these economic times when I feel like every effort should be made to conserve. I had buyers who would have purchased, thereby keeping it on the tax rolls.